Sub Sinks Tugboat

1 Man Lost

Snags Towline, Pulls Boat Under

June 15, 1989|By SCOTT HARRIS and JAMES RAINEY Los Angeles Times

LONG BEACH, CALIF. — A nuclear-powered Navy submarine involved in the making of the film "The Hunt for Red October" accidentally sank a tugboat early Wednesday when it snagged the tug's tow cable and yanked the boat under water about 10 miles southwest of Long Beach.

One crewman of the tugboat Barcona was missing and presumed dead late Wednesday despite a daylong search that involved four Coast Guard vessels, two helicopters and the Houston, the submarine involved in the accident.

Two other Barcona crewmen jumped into the fog-shrouded sea and managed to swim to an empty barge their tug had been towing. Later, the two survivors told investigators of moments of terror - of how their 97-ton, 73-foot tug was jolted backward and sunk by an unseen force.

The Houston, a fast-attack submarine launched in 1981 at Newport News Shipbuilding, is based in San Diego. It was in the Long Beach area to assist in the filming of "The Hunt for Red October," a tale of a Soviet submarine commander's defection to the United States, said Lt. Sonja Hedly, a spokeswoman for the Naval Submarine Base San Diego. "But this incident had absolutely nothing to do with Hollywood or with the filming," Hedley emphasized.

Shooting had been planned for later in the day. But there were no actors or film crew present when the accident occurred.

Hedley said the Houston was submerged when it caught the tow cable linking the Barcona to two empty barges at about 4:45 a.m. Navy officials refused to disclose the submarine's depth, speed, whether it was in descent when the accident occured, or whether its sensors should have detected the Barcona's 1,000-foot steel cable.

Hedley said the accident would be investigated by the Coast Guard and the Navy and that no further details would be released until the investigation was completed.

The sinking of the Barcona was described in an interview by Cmdr. Donald Parsons, chief of investigations for the Coast Guard's Los Angeles-Long Beach group, and in a press conference by Ralph Larison, president of Connolly-Pacific Co., a marine construction company that owns the tugboat and employs the crew.

Both men had talked with the two survivors, Barcona captain Mike Link and deckhand Daniel Rodriguez. The third crewman, Bryan Ballanger, 32, married and the father of two children, was last seen going below deck to check on the Barcona's engines moments before the boat went under in 2,500-foot-deep waters.

Ballanger was piloting the vessel through a thick fog at about six knots, while Link and Rodriguez slept below deck when the accident occurred. That was standard practice, Larison said. Ballanger was a licensed tugboat pilot.

"They were jerked backward with such a force that water came over the stern of the boat and the rear windows were knocked out," Larison said. Crew members estimated they were being towed backward at about 10 knots.

Link went above deck to talk with Ballanger, Parsons said, but neither could understand what was happening to their boat. The pilot then decided to check the engine room.

"The tug was pulled down and sank," Parsons said. "It happened in less than one minute."

As the tug started sinking quickly, Rodriquez jumped overboard, and Link followed moments later.

In the movie based on Tom Clancy's best-selling suspense novel, "The Hunt for Red October," the USS Houston portrays an American submarine, the USS Dallas.

Navy officials occasionally permit movie and television producers to make use of Navy vessels, but rarely allow access to nuclear-powered submarines. However, Navy officials said they hoped "Red October," starring Sean Connery and Scott Glenn, would provide a boost in enlistment for the submarines and surface ships just as the movie "Top Gun" brought a flood of enlistments in the Navy aviation program. A Navy spokesman said Paramount Studios is charged $400 an hour for the period in which the Houston is used.